The design of contemporary memory system architectures may include tradeoffs between cost, performance and the ability to upgrade, for example, the total memory capacity of the system. Memory capacity is commonly upgraded via memory modules or cards having a connector/socket interface. Often these memory modules are connected to a bus or interconnecting wiring disposed on a backplane to utilize system resources efficiently. In addition to upgradeability, many of these contemporary memory systems also require high throughput for bandwidth intensive applications, such as graphics, or data center memories.
Memories used in computing and communications systems include, but are not limited to, random access memory (RAM) of all types (e.g., S-RAM, D-RAM); programmable read only memory (PROM); electronically alterable read only memory (EPROM); flash memory (FLASH), magnetic memories of all types including Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM), Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM or FeRAM) as well as NRAM (Nanotube-based/Nonvolatile RAM) and Phase-change memory (PRAM), and magnetic disk storage media. Other memories which may become suitable for use in the future include quantum devices and the like.